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EDUCATIONAL  RECONSTRUCTION 


ERNEST  CARROLL  MOORE 


Reprinted  from  The  International  Joxjrnal  op  Ethics,  Vol.  XXIX, 

April,  1919 


u7i92 


350        IXTERNATIONAL   JOURNAL   OF   ETHICS. 


EDUCATIONAL   RECONSTRUCTION. 

ERNEST  CARROLL  MOORE. 
I. 

WHAT  is  the  chief  lesson  of  the  war?  It  has  tested 
many  a  theory  and  rejected  many  a  conclusion. 
The  activities  of  almost  every  department  of  human  life 
have  been  forced  to  submit  themselves  to  its  criticism. 
Politics,  ethics,  religion,  philosophy,  science,  economics, 
literature,  and  even  art  emerge  from  its  crucible  difTerent, 
very  different,  from  what  they  were  before  it  laid  its  bloody 
hands  upon  them.  So  impartially  has  it  brought  human 
interests  to  trial  by  ordeal  of  battle,  that  each  separate  man 
of  us  is  convinced  that  its  chief  lesson  concerns  his  own,  rather 
than  his  neighbor's  calling.  The  world  is  in  a  highly  pro- 
gressive condition  with  such  a  wealth  of  newly  proved 
insight  to  put  to  work. 

Education  is  among  the  human  interests  which  have 
been  put  to  the  trial.  The  war  has,  indeed,  been  the  prov- 
ing stage  of  two  colossal  educational  experiments.  The 
first  of  these  began  some  fifty  years  ago,  in  Germany,  at 
the  time  that  her  autocratic  government  began  to  form  its 
plans  for  the  subjugation  of  the  world.  Germany's  educa- 
tional experiment  is  in  some  respects  the  most  remarkable 
demonstration  of  the  power  of  teaching  in  the  annals  of  the 
world.  I\Ir.  Benjamin  Kidd,  the  author  of  that  very 
remarkable  book,  "The  Science  of  Power,"  regards  the 
transforming  influence  of  the  German  schools  as  a  dis- 
tinguishing mark  of  modern  history.  Their  education  was 
directed  "almost  exclusively  to  the  ends  of  war  and  to  the 
fastening  on  the  woild  of  ideals  founded  on  war  for  their 
maintenance.  lOvcn  so  diiccted,  il  has  ])r()duced  an 
example  in  history  of  self-sacrifice,  so  colossal  and  so 
admirable,"  he  says,  "as  to  appear,  to  use  the  words  of  a 
recent  American  writer,  'almost  superhuman,'  albeit  an 
exam^/Iv  Jd/tiFjaiost'siinciihiiinaij  pi}\r(?r  sO  >h|^>(>trrr'3ed  as  to 


LA 

EDUCATIONAL   RECONSTRUCTION.  351  M  'jf:^ 

constitute  'one  of  the  most  pathetic  events  in  the  history     ^^p\ 
of  mankind,'  " 

All  wars,  we  are  told,  are  wars  about  doctrine.  Germany- 
prepared  this  one  by  a  process  of  indoctrination,  so  delib- 
erate and  so  thoroughgoing  as  to  be  w^ithout  a  parallel  in 
the  records  of  men.  National  existence  and  national 
strength  are  due  to  folks  agreeing,  uniting,  and  sticking 
together  to  the  end.  The  Germans  desired  the  same  things, 
hoped  for  the  same  things,  and  worked  almost  super- 
humanly  to  accomplish  them.  The  time  came  when  they 
began  to  see  that  their  plan  could  not  succeed.  At  that 
point  they  gave  it  up,  at  least  for  the  time  being,  but  they 
were  apparently  as  united  concerning  the  desirability  of 
their  plan  at  the  end  as  thej^  were  at  the  beginning. 

They  .  .  .  plotted,  planned,  and  almost  accom- 
plished the  enslaving  of  the  race.  They  carried  their 
purpose  into  execution  with  a  brutality  which  has  never 
been  exceeded.  How  did  they  transform  their  own  people 
into  such  willing  implements  of  slaughter?  How  did  they 
persuade  flesh  and  blood  folks  to  devote  themselves  to  a 
cause  so  unrighteous?  If  we  can  find  out,  we  may  be  able 
to  use  the  process — or  some  parts  of  it — for  better  ends. 

The  means  which  Germany  used  were  her  schools.  The 
war  was  schoolmaster  made.  She  had  twenty-one  univer- 
sities and  eleven  technical  high  schools  of  superior  grade. 
Since  the  founding  of  the  Empire,  her  population  increased 
from  forty  millions  to  sixty-five  millions,  but  the  number  of 
students  in  these  institutions  of  higher  learning  increased 
from  eighteen  thousand  to  sixty  thousand.  There  were 
some  thirty-four  hundred  professors  in  the  universities, 
and  about  seven  hundred  fifty  in  the  technical  schools,  or  a 
total  professorate  body  of  four  thousand  two  hundred  men. 
All  were  state  officers.  Formerly  they  made  much  of  their 
freedom;  but  in  recent  years  they  have  become  ''mere 
gramaphones"  for  the  officials.  There  is  evidence  that 
their  transformation  has  been  going  on  a  long  while 
Even  as  long  ago  as  1880  Hillebrand  wrote  that  "the  na- 
tion in  which  Madam  de  Stael  did  not  find  two  minds 


352        INTERNATIONAL  JOURNAL   OF   ETHICS. 

thinking  alike  on  any  subject  has  become  singularly  grega- 
rious, nay  uniform;  the  great  producer  and  consumer  of 
original  ideas  is  content  nowadays  to  feed  on  some  few 
watchwords  mechanically  repeated."  "Money,  titles  and 
decorations  play  a  considerably  more  important  part  at 
present  than  during  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury," said  Paulsen  when  he  wrote  his  German  Education — 
Past  and  Present. 

The  German  patriotism  which  produced  the  war  was  not 
naive  and  natural,  like  that  of  older  days;  it  was  forced, 
intentional,  manufactured,  the  result  of  that  pounding-in 
process  which  Price  Collier  found  so  nauseating.  The 
great  professors  and  the  little  professors  have  for  many 
years  back  been  apostles  of  Weltmacht.  In  every  one  of 
the  twenty-one  universities  and  the  eleven  technical  high 
schools  there  was  never-ending  talk  about  race  psychology 
and  the  natural  superiority  of  Herrenvolk  to  Pobelvolk,  the 
blessing  of  war  and  the  lofty  duty  of  all  Germans.  The 
Germans  have  a  saying  that  a  professor  is  a  man  who  al- 
ways has  another  reason.  But  those  three  hundred  and 
fifty-two  professors  who  on  June  20,  1915,  signed  the 
petition  to  the  Imperial  Chancellor  urging  the  government 
to  utilize  the  military  results,  gained  at  such  great  sacrifice, 
''to  the  extreme  attainable  limit,"  did  not  have  "another 
reason."  They  were  engaged  only  in  echoing  ofhcial 
opinion — even  as  the  famous  ninety-three  in  their  declara- 
tion had  done  at  the  beginning  of  hostilities. 

It  is  difficult  to  understand  how  a  crime  so  colossal  and 
so  deliberate  came  to  be  conceived.  Its  origin  will  have 
to  be  investigated  more  carefully  than  it  has  yet  been, 
before  we  can  be  quite  sure  of  the  details  of  its  beginning 
and  the  steps  of  its  development.  It  is  (luite  clear  that 
the  forty-two  hundred  ])rofessors  in  the  universities  and 
technical  schools  were  active  agents  in  ]:)ronioting  it.  It 
may  even  in  time  be  discovered  that  some  of  their  number 
originated  it  and  supplied  it  to  the  g()V(U'nnient.  Von 
Treitsclike  seems  at  least  to  have  aspired  to  that  role. 
At   any  rate,  when   the   officials  had  once  taken   it    up, 


EDUCATIONAL   RECOXSTRUCTION.  353 

the  professors  became  the  most  active  propagandists 
which  it  had. 

German  higher  education  clearh'  had  a  Jekyll  and  Hyde 
character.  It  seemed  to  be  concerned  with  the  humanities, 
with  ethics,  Uterature  and  philosophy,  but  its  real  objec- 
tive was  something  very  different — something  as  far  re- 
moved from  these  things  as  the  East  is  from  the  "West. 
The  results  of  its  cultivation  of  the  humanities  were  ciuite 
indifferent,  but  what  it  really  purposed  it  achieved. 

An  even  more  interesting  question  concerns  the  German 
people.  If  the  universities  indoctrinated  the  leaders,  who 
indoctrinated  the  followers?  That  is  a  truly  amazing 
story.  There  is  a  book  which  circulated  freely  in  our 
country  before  we  entered  the  war,  which  has  something 
to  say  upon  that  subject.  It  is  a  propagandist  volume 
called  ''Modern  Germany,  by  various  German  Writers." 
Professor  Troeltsch  contributes  an  article  on  German 
Kultur  in  the  course  of  which  he  explains  that  in  Germany 
''the  school  organization  parallels  that  of  the  army.  The 
public  school  corresponds  to  the  popular  army.  The 
latter,  as  well  as  the  former,  was  called  into  being  during 
the  first  great  rise  of  the  coming  German  state  in  opposi- 
tion to  Napoleon."  The  philosopher  Fichte  advised  the 
Germans  to  adopt  an  educational  program  of  three  parts, 
schools  for  the  people,  middle  schools,  and  the  university. 
"This,"  says  Professor  Troeltsch,  "has  become  the  real 
formative  factor  of  the  German  spirit." 

The  Germany  which  made  the  war  was  a  land  of  castes. 
Her  school  system  was  not  intended  to  open  opportunity 
to  everyone.  They  did  not  set  up  a  ladder  reaching  from 
the  kindergarten  to  the  university.  They  made  the 
Volksschule  a  thing  apart  to  keep  the  toiling  millions  of 
the  lower  classes  in  their  place,  and  teach  them  such  un- 
questioning obedience  as  would  make  them  pliant  and 
devoted  tools  of  the  ofhcials.  The  Volksschule  was  a  free 
school;  the  others  were  not.  The  German  child  of  work- 
ing parents  entered  it  at  six  years  of  age,  and  normally 
continued  in  its  classes  until  he  reached  the  age  of  fourteen. 


354        INTERNATIONAL  JOURNAL   OF   ETHICS. 

He  studied  no  foreign  language  during  this  period.  But 
the  child  of  more  fortunate  parents  who  was  to  be  trained 
for  a  career  did  not  go  to  the  Volksschule.  He  entered  the 
Gijmnasium,  or  the  Realschule,  or  the  Real  Gymnasium  at 
the  age  of  nine  and  at  once  began  the  study  of  a  foreign 
language,  for  a  long  training  in  foreign  languages  was  neces- 
sary before  he  was  qualified  to  enter  a  German  university. 
The  Volksschule  did  not  lead  through  the  middle  school  to  the 
university;  it  led  away  from  it.  It  was  intended  to  do  that. 
The  Germans  built  a  wall  of  foreign  languages  about  their 
higher  education  which  effectually  kept  it  away  from  the 
mass  of  their  people.  Ninety  per  cent  of  them  had  to  be  sat- 
isfied with  what  was  furnished  them  free  in  the  Volksschule. 

Professor  Alexander's  The  Prussian  Elementary  Schools 
tells  the  story  of  the  training  which  made  the  war  possible. 
In  all  Germany  eight  hundred  and  ninety-two  boys  out  of 
every  thousand  attended  the  Volksschule.  It  is  a  cheap 
school,  the  cost  per  year  per  pupil  being  $16,  while  in  the 
middle  and  higher  schools  the  cost  per  pupil  is  $34  and  $70, 
respectively.  The  average  number  of  pupils  per  teacher 
in  the  Volksschule  was  55;  in  the  middle  school,  30;  in  the 
higher  school,  18.6.  There  is  much  overcrowding,  some 
classes  having  90  pupils  and  others  even  more  than  that 
number.  Four  out  of  every  five  of  the  elementary  school 
teachers  of  Germany  are  men.  When  the  teacher  enters 
the  schoolroom,  the  children  must  rise  and  remain  stand- 
ing until  they  are  told  to  sit.  When  the  teacher  is  ad- 
dressed, there  is  enforced  curtsying  and  deep  bowing. 
WTien  the  l)oy  recites,  he  lakes  the  military  position. 
Fear  ])r(;sides  in  these  schools,  the  teachers  t;ilk  in  a  loud 
voice  and  not  infrcfjuently  yell  tlicii-  instructions.  Slap- 
ping is  general  and  \vhij)piiig  common. 

The  method  of  instruction  is  signilicant.  The  teacher 
talks  or  lectures  to  the  children,  and  at  the  close  of  his  dis- 
sertation li(!  calls  tlicm  11]),  one  by  one,  to  repeat  to  him 
what  he  has  said.  Lessons  are  thus  learned  from  teachers 
rather  than  from  text-books.  Some  years  ago,  a  leading 
American  teacher  became  so  enamoicd  ol'  their  i)lan  of  con- 


EDUCATIONAL   RECONSTRUCTION.  355 

ducting  school  work  for  children  that  he  came  back  home 
and  gave  expression  to  his  feeling  of  the  superiority  of 
their  way  of  giving  instruction  in  the  saying:  ''The  Ger- 
man teacher  teaches,  but  the  American  teacher  hears  les- 
sons." But  if  one  is  habituated  from  infancy  to  hear  and 
believe  the  living  voice  of  authority,  will  he  not  thereby  be 
prepared  to  obey  the  commands  of  the  drill  sergeant,  the 
lieutenant,  and  the  captain?  "It  is  part  and  parcel  of  the 
purpose  of  the  whole  elementary  system  of  education  in 
Germany,  to  destroy  individuality  and  initiative  among  the 
lower  classes.  ...  I  had  visited  over  three  hundred 
classes  in  the  Volksschulen  in  Prussia  before  I  heard  a  ques- 
tion from  a  pupil  or  a  request  for  an  explanation  of  a  ques- 
tion which  had  occurred  to  him,"  writes  Alexander.  It 
was  by  pounding  in  the  same  lessons  to  her  sixty  million 
people  that  Germany  produced  the  miracle  of  a  nation  that 
thought,  moved,  and  acted  as  one  man  directed.  What 
were  the  lessons  which  brought  about  that  amazing  and 
unnatural  unity?  The  great  subject  of  instruction  in  the 
Volksschule  was  religion.  All  the  people  were  taught  by 
incessant  repetition,  from  the  first  day  of  school  to  the  last, 
that  God,  King,  and  Fatherland  were  existences  of  the 
same  order;  that  obedience  to  the  King  and  the  Fatherland 
was  as  necessary  as  obedience  to  God  himself.  The  divine 
right  of  the  Hohenzollern  was  no  fiction  to  the  German 
school  child.  German  history  was  made  to  produce  the 
conviction  that  the  German  people  are  the  greatest,  the 
best,  and  the  only  folks  of  much  consequence  on  earth. 
The  study  of  the  German  language  and  literature  was 
undertaken  to  effect  ''a  German  attitude  of  mind."  The 
German  schoolmasters  carried  out  the  instructions  of  the 
Government.  They  did  their  work  well,  so  well  as  to 
leave  no  doubt  in  any  thinking  mind  henceforth  that  the 
schools  of  a  nation  can,  indeed,  if  they  will,  mold  its  people 
to  whatever  end  the  national  will  may  set  before  itself  as 
its  objective. 

That  our  interpretation  is  not  wrong  is  proved  by  the 
character  of  the  changes  in  German  education  which  the 


356        INTERNATIONAL   JOURNAL   OF   ETHICS. 

Socialist  Minister  of  Instruction,  Herr  Hanisch,  announced 
as  soon  as  the  revolution  brought  him  to  power  in  Novem- 
ber last.     Among  them  were:  the  separation  of  church  and 
state;  religion  no  longer  to  be  an  examination  subject;  no 
teacher  may  in  future  be  compelled  to  give  reUgious  edu- 
cation; a  plan  for  the  introduction  of  unsectarian  moral 
teaching  is  being  prepared;  supervision  of  schools  by  the 
clergy  is  abolished;  all  chauvinism  is  banished  from  the 
instruction,  and  especially  from  the  instruction  in  history; 
mixed  education  of  boys  and  girls  has  already  been  intro- 
duced in  some  schools;  teachers  and  scholars  are  given 
powers  of  self-government;  the  uniform  school  (Einheits- 
schule)  is  secured,  and  the  abolition  of  all  class  schools  will 
be  begun  immediately;  a  system  of  national  high  schools  is 
to  be  built  on  large  lines,  and  to  be  placed  in  organic  con- 
nection with  existing  schools  and  high  schools ;  freedom  of 
doctrine  in  the  universities  is  to  be  rid  of  its  last  fetters. 

So  much  for  the  German  educational  experiment.  It 
supplied  the  cement  which  unified  a  people  and  kept  it 
solidly  devoted  to  its  unholy  purpose  through  four  yeai-s  of 
unparalleled  sacrifice  and  self-denial,  and  in  the  end  it 
yielded  only  to  the  inevitable  disintegration  of  failure. 

II. 

Let  us  turn  to  the  American  experiment.  When  the 
war  came  we  were  not  prepared.  It  took  us  two  years  and 
eight  months  to  realize  that  our  liberties  were  in  danger. 
The  CIcrinans  made  no  secret  of  their  intentions,  they  dis- 
closed tlioir  methods  from  the  first  outbreak  of  hostilities, 
they  made  war  upon  our  citizens  both  at  homo  and  abroad, 
and  in  their  complacency  assured  us  that  we  were  too 
cowardly  to  defend  our  rights.  We  failed  to  realize  what 
they  were  doing.  That  is  the  supreme  proof  of  the  failure 
of  our  educational  system,  for  a  nation  that  cannot  discern 
impending  dost rud  ion  in  loss  than  two  years  is  not  able  to 
preserve  itself.  It  must  become  more  keenly  sensitive  to 
the  conditions  amid  whicli  it  lives. 


EDUCATIONAL  RECONSTRUCTION.  357 

And  when  we  finally  discovered  that  our  very  existence 
as  a  people  was  in  jeopardy  and  had  been  all  along,  we 
promptly  made  certain  other  discoveries  which  were  not 
at  all  reassuring.  We  discovered  that  a  good  many  of  us 
could  not  read  or  write,  that  some  seven  hundred  thousand 
in  the  first  registration  could  not  read  the  government's 
instructions  or  fill  out  the  blanks  which  they  were  called 
upon  to  fill  out.  And  when  the  first  national  army  found 
itself  in  camp  ready  for  intensive  training,  not  onl}^  were 
there  thousands  of  men  who  could  not  read  the  manual  of 
arms,  but  thousands  who  could  not  understand  the  sim- 
plest commands  in  English.  In  spite  of  all  that  could  be 
done,  men  made  their  way  into  the  Signal  Corps  who  could 
not  spell  the  simplest  words  with  letters,  let  alone  wdth 
signal  flags  or  in  the  Morse  code;  and  men  made  their  way 
into  the  front  trenches  and  took  their  turn  at  sentry  duty 
who  did  not  know  enough  English  to  give  their  fellow- 
soldiers  the  alarm  when  a  gas  attack  began.  The  Provost 
Marshal  General  reported  that  the  physical  examination  of 
the  men  called  up  for  duty  showed  that  twenty-nine  per 
cent  of  them  were  physically  unfit  to  defend  the  homeland. 
That  seems  to  me  to  be  the  most  pathetic  disclosure  of  the 
war,  for  when  armies  are  gathered  and  battles  are  fought 
we  expect  that  wounds  will  be  given  and  cripples  be  made 
and  that  starvation  and  sickness  will  come,  but  we  do  not 
expect  to  find  that  these  conditions  have  been  allowed  to 
obtain  unchecked  and  unremedied  in  peace  time.  The 
schools  cannot  control  such  conditions,  but  it  is,  neverthe- 
less, true  that  a  school  system  which  allows  such  a  propor- 
tion of  its  students  to  grow  up  physically  unfit  is  to  that 
extent  a  failure.  When  the  men  of  the  draft  were  called 
into  camp,  it  was  found  that,  though  they  had  been  taught 
music  in  school,  they  did  not  know  and  could  not  sing  the 
songs  of  our  nation  and  had  to  be  trained  to  sing  them. 
The  country  was  divided  into  districts  and  a  carefully 
selected  corps  of  speakers  went  from  camp  to  camp  to  give 
addresses  on  the  causes  and  meaning  of  the  war.  I  am 
told  by  one  of  these  speakers,  a  well  known  professor  of  his- 


358       INTERNATIONAL  JOURNAL   OF   ETHICS. 

tory  in  a  large  American  university,  that  they  all  found 
much  the  same  condition  in  the  different  camps.  The  men 
were  capable,  alert  fellows,  eager  to  answer  their  country's 
call  and  to  do  whatever  it  demanded  of  them,  but  when 
they  began  to  talk  to  them  about  the  causes  of  the 
war,  thej^  met  a  dead  wall  of  lack  of  understanding.  I  am 
told  that  it  is  a  cherished  belief  of  many  of  our  army  officers 
that  soldiers  do  not  need  to  know  an>i:hing  about  the  cause 
for  which  they  are  fighting,  that  all  that  is  really  necessary- 
is  a  man  with  a  bayonet  who  knows  how  to  use  it,  and  has 
visceral  strength  enough  to  let  that  knowledge  function 
on  occasion.  It  seems  otherwise  to  that  large  body  of 
students  of  human  nature  who  hold  that  morale  is  at  least 
three-fourths  of  the  strength  of  every  army  and  that  every 
soldier  is  under-armed  who  does  not  know  of  his  own  knowl- 
edge that  his  quarrel  is  just. 

There  were  other  shortcomings  which  quickly  made  their 
presence  known.  We  found  that  as  a  people  we  knew  far 
too  little  about  the  production  of  food  and  about  the  selec- 
tion and  preparation  of  foods.  We  found  that  we  knew 
wofully  little  about  geography,  wofully  httle  about  our 
own  history,  and  less,  far  less  even,  about  the  history  of 
our  neighbors  in  Europe. 

Then  began  our  real  experiment  in  education.  Officers 
had  to  be  trained,  amnumition  makers,  infantrymen, 
artillerymen,  motor  transport  men,  flying  men,  men  for  a 
hundred  forms  of  service.  Instead  of  three  years  in  which 
to  train  and  prepare  an  army,  we  had  but  six  months  and 
did  the  job,  but  only  by  means  of  brief  intensive  courses 
for  all  arms  which  abandoned  almost  all  the  previously 
followed  ritualism  which  the  learning  of  the  subject  was 
supi)osed  to  involve,  and  having  first  of  all  detorniinod  the 
objective  to  be  reached,  thereupon  analyzed  the  oi)era- 
tions  which  were  absolutely  essential  to  the  attaining  of 
that  objective  and  regarded  everything  else  as  of  no  impor- 
tance. Miracles  were  performed  here,  too,  as  well  as  in 
(lerniany,  but  miracles  of  a  wholly  different  order.  We 
found  it  was  possible  to  train  pretty  efficient  mechanics  to 


EDUCATIONAL   RECONSTRUCTION.  359 

do  a  specific  type  of  expert  work  in  eight  weeks;  that  it  was 
possible  to  produce  a  trained  officer,  a  trained  artilleryman, 
a  trained  flying  man  in  six  months. 

Whoever  will  collate  and  write  the  detailed  history  of 
this  colossal  educational  experiment  and  will  reinforce  its 
lesson  with  an  account  of  how  England  and  France  and 
Italy  performed  a  similar  miracle  of  ciuick  training  for  war 
in  all  its  branches,   will  perform  a  service  of  no   slight 
dimensions  to  the  race.     It  is  quite  clear  that  this  contains 
the  corrective  for  our  hitherto  almost  aimless  and  desultory 
educational   practices.     There   can   be   no   question   that 
before  the  war  we  put  our  trust  in  educational  rites.     We 
had  no  clearly  conceived  objectives.     We  did  not  analyze 
our  operations.     We  thought   of  education  as  sitting  in 
schoolrooms  for  a  certain  number  of  years  and  keeping 
almost  any  sort  of  company  with  the  recognized  and  com- 
monly accepted  subjects  of  study.     By  that  hit  and  miss 
process,  taking  a  long  time  for  it,  we  managed  to  accom- 
plish something,  but  by  no  means  as  much  as  we  now  see 
that  we  should  have  accomplished  in  a  much  shorter  time. 
We  are  now  in  the  throes  of  educational  reconstruction. 
We  are  trying  to  define  our  objectives  and  analyze  our 
processes.     A  little  book  on  "Individual   Instruction  in 
Rifle  Practice"  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  A.  J.  :\IacNab  is  on 
mj^  table.     It  is  typical  of  a  procedure  which  must,  I  be- 
lieve, be  appUed  to  all  subjects  of  instruction.     It  outUnes 
a  system  of  training  first  developed  by  the  Second  Battal- 
ion, 14th  U.  S.  Infantry.     The  officers  of  that   battahon 
became  convinced  that  there  was  no  reason  why  every  man 
could  not  learn  to  shoot.     The  manual  contains  only  what 
every  m,an  should  know  in  order  t(^  do  that.     The  process 
is  analyzed  to  its  lowest  terms.     There  are  three  essentials 
to  good  shooting:  (1)  Correct   aiming,    (2)  correct   posi- 
tions, and  (3)  correct  trigger-squeeze.     In  rapid  fire  three 
more  are  added.     An  instructor  is  necessary  to  explain  the 
requirements,  see  that  each  man  understands  them,  and 
then  to  stand  beside  the  man  to  watch  what  he  does  and 
point  out  his  errore  to  him.     The  schedule  of  instruction  is 


360       INTERNATIONAL  JOURNAL   OF  ETHICS. 

for  one  week  of  intensive  training.  Each  man's  record  in 
all  the  constituent  processes  is  each  day  entered  upon  a 
carefullj^  tabulated  blank.  The  range  practice  is  devoted 
almost  exclusively  to  teaching  him  to  squeeze  the  trigger  as 
he  should,  but  habits  of  position,  breathing,  and  aiming  are 
watched  as  well. 

This  is  a  rational  proceeding  as  unlike  the  thing  that 
used  to  pass  for  instruction  in  the  use  of  the  rifle  as  the 
ritualistic  teaching  of  spelling,  geography,  history,  civics, 
and  the  use  of  the  English  language  is  unlike  what  it  would 
be  if  a  similar  analysis  were  applied  to  the  teaching  of  each 
of  these  subjects.  For  example,  why  do  we  teach  spelling? 
There  are  400,000  words,  more  or  less,  in  the  English 
language.  Makers  of  spelUng  books  up  to  recent  days 
have  thought  that  it  makes  little  difference  which  of  them 
we  try  to  learn  to  spell  since  we  should,  if  possible,  learn 
to  spell  them  all.  That  is,  their  books  were  made  on  the 
principle  that  spelling  is  for  its  own  sake,  that  we  should 
learn  to  spell  words  because  words  are  spelled.  But  why 
should  anyone  study  spelling?  The  answer  is,  because  he 
will  have  need  to  spell  certain  words  when  he  writes. 
Then  if  we  can  find  out  what  the  words  are  which  folks 
spell  when  they  write  and  teach  him  those,  that  will  greatly 
simphfy  our  understanding  and,  perhaps,  make  it  possible 
for  everyone,  or  nearly  everyone,  to  learn  to  spell.  Dr- 
Leonard  P.  Ayres  some  years  ago  began  an  investigation 
to  find  out  what  those  words  are.  Others  have  carried 
it  on.  Our  aim  in  teaching  spelling  begins  to  take  rather 
definite  form,  but  our  practice  has  yet  to  be  made  to  con- 
form to  it.  And  an  analysis  of  the  process  of  learning 
even  these  words  is  yet  to  be  supplied. 

To  apply  the  same  method  in  every  study  which  is 
taught  will  take  a  long  time  and  call  for  pretty  resolute 
work  on  the  part  of  the  whole  body  of  educators.  But 
that  is  the  thing  which  the  war  has  taught  us  we  must  do, 
and  that  is  the  reconstruction  which  is  afoot  in  education 
to-day.  JUit  the  war  is  teaching  us  much  beside  that. 
It  is  teaching  us  that  the  administrative  machinery  which 


EDUCATIONAL   RECONSTRUCTION.  361  * 

we  have  trusted  as  sufficient  to  run  the  pubUc  schools  is 
not  sufficient. 

We  are  a  democracy — a  government  which  exists  by 
the  consent  of  the  governed.  But  Germany's  autocracy 
existed  by  the  consent  of  the  governed.  No  government 
ever  existed  without  the  consent  of  the  people  it  governed. 
Consent  of  the  governed  is  a  phrase  of  many  meanings. 
It  may  be  passive  or  it  may  be  active.  It  may  signify  in- 
active minds  and  very  active  bodies,  or  it  may  stand  for 
a  high  degree  of  mental,  as  well  as  physical,  participation 
in  the  maintenance  of  the  nation.  That  ours  may  be  a 
government  of  the  people,  for  the  people,  and  by  the 
people,  the  public  must  have  an  opinion  and  must  at  all 
times  be  fit  and  ready  to  take  its  part  not  only  in  shaping 
the  policies  of  the  nation  but  in  carrjdng  them  out.  That 
it  cannot  do  while  so  rnany  do  not  speak  the  language 
of  the  country  and  cannot  be  communicated  with  through 
the  medium  of  print.  Public  education  with  us,  as  with 
Germany,  is  the  one  means  which  can  make  the  nation 
one  in  attitude,  desire,  aspiration,  and  action;  but  public 
education  which  is  our  sole  national  reliance  is,  legally, 
an  affair  not  of  the  nation  but  of  the  forty-eight  states. 
It  is,  indeed,  a  coat  of  many  colors.  Schools  are  well 
provided  in  one  state,  the  schoolhouse  is  good,  the  teachers 
well  trained,  the  term  is  long,  and  the  standards  are  high, 
but  in  the  neighboring  state  the  opposite  may  be  true. 
The  war  has  shown  us  that  the  nation  must  supplement 
the  educational  activities  of  the  states  if  the  results  which 
we  as  a  people  require  are  to  be  attained.  To  that  end 
the  National  Education  Association  has  prepared  what 
might  be  called  a  National  Education  Bill,  for  it  is  the 
American  counterpart  of  the  English  Education  Law. 
That  bill  provides  for  the  creation  of  a  Secretaryship  of 
Education  in  the  President's  cabinet,  and  the  annual 
appropriation  of  $100,000,000  from  the  national  treasury 
to  supplement  the  expenditures  for  public  education  on 
the  part  of  the  states.  Of  that  sum  it  is  proposed  to 
devote  $7,500,000  to  co-operating  with  the  states  in  the 


362       INTERNATIONAL   JOURNAL  OF  ETHICS. 

abolition  of  illiteracy,  $7,500,000  to  co-operating  with  the 
states  in  the  Americanization  of  immigrants,  $50,000,000 
to  co-operating  with  the  states  in  the  efforts  to  equalize 
educational  opportunity,  $20,000,000  to  co-operating  with 
the  states  in  the  promotion  of  physical  and  health  educa- 
tion and  recreation,  $15,000,000  to  co-operating  with  the 
states  in  preparing  teachers  for  the  schools,  particularly 
for  rural  schools.  The  bill  contains  the  provision  that  no 
state  shall  share  in  these  several  apportionments  unless  it 
devotes  a  sum  equal  to  that  which  it  would  receive  to  the 
specific  purpose  for  which  the  apportionment  is  asked. 
All  provisions  of  Congress  for  co-operating  with  the  states 
in  the  promotion  of  education  are  to  be  supervised  by  the 
proposed  Department  of  Education.  What  is  proposed 
is  a  nationalizing  of  education,  but  only  in  the  sense  that 
the  strength  and  resources  on  the  nation  are  to  take  their 
place  behind  the  activities  of  the  schools.  Local  responsi- 
bility for  their  welfare  is  not  to  be  diminished,  but  rather 
increased,  by  this  measure,  and  local  control  of  them  is  to 
be  complete  save  that  if  the  people  of  a  state  want  to 
share  in  the  national  allotments  for  education,  they  must 
bring  their  schools  up  to  the  standard  which  the  nation 
may  set.  It  will  readily  be  seen  that  if  this  measure 
becomes  a  law,  it  will  effect  a  wholesome  strengthening  of 
the  school  activities  of  the  land. 

But  national  reorganization  is  not  the  only  kind  that  is 
needed.  This  is  a  time  for  reconstructing  the  administra- 
tive machinery  in  the  states  as  well.  That  reconstructing 
is  generally  needed  and  nowhere  more  than  in  the  adminis- 
trative machinery  for  conducting  the  schools  of  the  state. 
Massachusetts,  for  example,  requires  that  the  work  of 
every  school  shall  be  supervised,  but  has,  as  yet,  provided 
but  very  little  help  from  the  state  for  those  towns  which 
are  too  poor  to  support  their  schools.  The  wealth  of  the 
state  is  not  taxed  to  educate  tlu^  children  of  the  state,  the 
state  exercises  but  slight  control  over  it,  and  as  a  result 
education  is  a  Joseph's  coat  in  Massachusetts.  In  Con- 
necticut,   apathy   and    indifference   are   the   rule.     Great 


EDUCATIONAL   RECONSTRUCTION.  363 

masses  of  foreign  born  workers  fill  the  towns.  The  foreign- 
ers have  the  children  and  the  Americans,  the  property. 
The  part  which  the  state  as  a  state  plays  in  education  is 
by  no  means  as  strong  as  it  should  be.  California  has  a 
better  system.  But  her  State  Superintendent  of  Public 
Instruction  is  elected  by  the  people,  and  her  State  Board 
of  Education  appointed  by  the  Governor.  As  a  conse- 
quence, she  has  a  two-headed  school  administration. 
The  State  Board  of  Education  appoints  three  Commis- 
sioners of  Education  who  are  supposed  to  serve  as  deputies 
and  assistants  to  the  State  Superintendent  of  Public 
Instruction.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  parts  of  this  adminis- 
trative machine  have  not  yet  been  put  together.  The 
rural  schools  of  the  state  are  organized  and  controlled  by 
districts.  The  districts  are  too  small  and  too  poor  to 
make  their  schools  going  concerns.  There  is  little  super- 
vision, little  standardizing,  and  rather  indifferent  results. 
Every  state  has  conditions  of  this  sort  to  repair.  The 
war  has  brought  about  a  transvaluation  of  former  values. 
We  see  now  that  education  is,  indeed,  as  Plato  said  it  was 
so  long  ago — the  one  thing  needful  for  the  preservation 
of  states  and  the  ordering  of  lives. 

Ernest  C.  Moore. 
State  Normal  School, 
Los  Angeles,  Cahfornia. 


57192 


Lithomount 

Pamphlet 

Binder 

Gaylord  Bros. 

Makers 
Syracuse,  N.  Y 

PAI.  JAN  21    1508 


■■:■     .'-X 


■-^v. ^y 


